The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : New twist to Woolmer inquest

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Thursday, Nov 01, 2007
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New twist to Woolmer inquest

Kingston: A witness testified at the inquest into the death of cricket coach Bob Woolmer to seeing a roll of U.S. currency in the Pakistan dressing room on the eve of their World Cup opener against the West Indies in March.

Patricia Baker-Sinclair, a janitorial supervisor, said that when she entered the changing room at Sabina Park on March 12 to carry out her cleaning duties she saw Pakistan cricket coach Woolmer “checking a thick coil of U.S. currency” in front of “an Indian-looking man”.

Witness account

“I knocked on the door of Pakistan changing room and was asked to identify myself, which I did,” she told coroner Patrick Murphy and the 11 jurors. “I was then told to enter, on entering, I recalled Woolmer checking thick coil of U.S. currency in front of the Indian man, who was in a jacket suit.”

Baker-Sinclair was unable to identify the second man, nor to say how much money she had seen or whether money had, in fact, changed hands.

Woomer died on March 18 after being found unconscious in his hotel room, a day after Pakistan were knocked out of the World Cup in embarrassing style by minnows Ireland.

Much of the testimony at this inquest has focused on the methods used by Jamaican government pathologist Ere Sheshiah, with several international pathologists saying his examinations did not conform to global standards.

Sheshiah has defended his work and stuck to his opinion that Woolmer was strangled after first ingesting a toxic pesticide.

Baker-Sinclair, asked by prosecutor Tanya Spence how she know it was U.S. money that she saw, replied: “Because me (sic) know it”.

Trace of pesticide found

Meanwhile, forensic scientists Patrick Best and Cheryl Corbin, both of Barbados, also testified on Tuesday.

The two said they examined samples of the contents of Woolmer’s stomach and said the pesticide cypermethrin was found in the body. — AFP

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